Typical centrifugal type torque converters for automotive and/or industrial transmission applications include an impeller, a stator and a turbine that cooperate using hydraulic fluid to transmit energy from an input (e.g., engine) to an output (e.g., transmission). In such a torque converter, the impeller is connected to the input, the turbine is connected to the output (e.g., transmission input shaft) and the stator is connected to a reaction member (e.g., non-rotating support shaft). The stator typically includes a plurality of blades designed to change the direction of the fluid exiting the turbine and entering the impeller. Conventional stator blade designs, such as ruled blade surface designs, balance effectiveness of redirecting fluid while attempting to minimize fluid losses with moderate success. With various new automotive transmission designs (e.g., more gears for more speeds), however, less axial space is available for torque converters thereby requiring an axially shorter or more axially compact stator. With such a stator having axially shorter blades, the conventional ruled blade surface designs have been shown to increase fluid losses, thereby impacting the performance of the torque converter and potentially negatively impacting fuel economy and noise-vibration and harshness (NVH) characteristics of an associated vehicle.